Worse still that unlike in the selection of the member of parliament, where members of the party have a say, the members of the local party are shut out from the selection of Councillors. Apparently, in Chipping Barnet Association the Councillors even vote for and change the rules affecting their own (re)selection. When I first ran every Conservative Party member in my Ward came to a general meeting and voted. Now the selection is now done in private and by as few as 3 people! Councillors are also mainly the Chairmen of the Branches that will make the selection decision.
This is a quote from Daniel Hope, a former Barnet Conservative councillor in Barnet. I'm not a member of the Conservative party and I don't support their policies, but I do believe in democracy and acknowledge the fact that for all its faults the Conservative Party of Great Britain is a force for democracy and freedom. A Conservative Prime Minister, Winston Churchill is probably the main reason that Western Europe has had a democratic political system for the last 60 years.
Dan left the above comment on my last blog and it started me thinking about the Barnet Tories, Mike Freer and Democracy. Lets start joining the dots up. Firstly how did Mike Freer come to be in charge of the Barnet Conservatives? Well in the 2006 Council elections, the Tories under leader Brian Salinger won the election with an increased number of councillors returned. They put a program before the people of Barnet. The people of Barnet liked it and elected them. Having gained power under one leader and his manifesto, they then stuck their fingers up at the electorate of Barnet and had a vote of no confidence in that leader and his platform. These councillors had all campaigned under a leader they had no confidence in. The reason for the vote? The Councillors didn't like his policies. Is this Democracy?
What happened next. The new Council leader enrolled himself on the BT Vital Vision program. This is an educational program run by a supplier of Outsourcing services, to get leaders of the public sector to think in new ways about running services. The new, unelected leader, Mike Freer then set up a panel to develop a future shape program for the council. Who did he put on the panel? A few council officials, a bloke from BT and a bloke from a quango. More interestingly who didn't he put on? Any elected councillors.
Within the council, there is a small cabal of councillors called "The Cabinet". This group take all of the important decisions. They get significant amounts of extra cash for doing this. How do you get into the cabinet. Mike Freer, the unelected leader, asks you. How do you get out of the cabinet? Mike Freer tells you. How are these decisions about cabinet structure taken? Behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny.
What happens if you criticise the way Mike Freer does things? Well if you are an opposition Councillor, you are publicly humiliated in council meetings. If you ask for the right to reply, you get told to sit down by the Tory Mayor. I thought that in Great Britain we valued the right to defend yourself? The Barnet Tory bully boys have a different view.
What happens if you write bogs? Well if like me, you allow any registered user to comment and don't censor anything you get comments like this (from my previous blog).
Blogger Amanda said...
What a load of crap actually what happened was he started spouting random crap on an item which wasn't listed as a debate and the Mayor asked him to sit down, but instead he was rude!
18 December 2008 12:46
I've been in touch with Jack Cohen, leader of the Liberal Democrats and asked his opinion of the comment. He wrote a blog on the Hendon Times website (click HERE) that detailed the incident. Lets just say Councillor Cohen isn't too impressed.
Repressive regimes use "show trials" as a means to destroy the opposition. Although I wasn't there, the incident with Jeremy Davies certainly reminds me of a certain rather notorious show trial, when the poor victim tried to defend himself he was told in no uncertain terms to sit down and shut up. It is a clear sign of an authoritarian streak within Barnet that has rather unfortunate precedents. I cannot think of a reason for not giving Davies a minute to defend himself? it can only be seen as bullying. What did the Tories fear? That Davies might show them for what they were? The motion would have still passed as they have the majority and they all know how to put their hands up at the right time.
The council spent hundreds of pounds setting up a propoganda site for the leader (under the leaderlistens banner). Comments may be left on this site, but they are screened by "The Social Media manager" - again without democratic scrutiny. I posted a comment on the site which never appeared. Councillor MacDonald asked Mike Freer why this wasn't posted in open council. Freer ignored the question.
Critics of the council have anonymous comments left about them, often of a rude and spiteful nature. As former Councillor Daniel Hope has fallen out with the ruling elite in Barnet, he is seen as fair game. When he leaves intelligent and well reasoned posts on blogs, comments such as this are left (This appears on David Millers Barnet Council Watch blog)
Anonymous Anonymous said...
" 'fat cat' Councillors allowances"
Which you Daniel no longer get! Bitter are we?
18 December 2008 09:18
Here's the response to one of my comments on the same blog
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Shut up Rog!
17 December 2008 15:16
Nice, isn't it. You may well wonder why it bothers me to see one faction of the Tory party sniping at another. Well I don't agree with much of what Dan writes about on matters of policy. I used to call him "Bonkers Dan" in response to his comments on the Hendon Times. This was because I disagree with his political views. The thing is he always puts his name on posts. He stands up for what he believes and he makes his points. I respect that. His Tory detractors hide anonymously. They don't argue the point, they just slur him. I am sure that Dan doesn't mind me having a go, because he knows who I am and if he can make his point properly, he can get his argument across. I don't mind him calling me a "swivel eyed Trot", he's a Tory !!! What I do worry about is the hidden character assassination that he's subject to. Again it is a form of bullying by those in power. It shows scant regard for manners or democracy. It is against the law to publish a political leaflet without putting your name and address on it. I rather think that this should be true of electronic media as well. That is why I require comments to be left by registered blogger users. I know that many of the commenters such as "Amanda" are smokescreens. I used to work doing textual analysis for a large organisation investigating cases of fraud a few years ago. I know who they are, the syntactic style of writing is like a fingerprint. It just reinforces my desire to expose them.
So lets summarise how the Barnet Tories behave.
So how do the Barnet Tories rate as a democratic party? Well from Councillor Hope's comment they aren't very democratic in their selection procedures. They put up a leader who they have no confidence in, with a program they are not happy with to win an election. They install a new leader, who appoints a team of unelected placemen to reinvent the council in a manner not discussed in the manifesto they were so unhappy with. They squash political opposition, without even the right to reply. Anyone who has studied history will know where this path goes.
Mike's baby is the Future Shape project. He wants the Barnet of Tomorrow to be moulded in his image. He wants to completely remove democratic accounbtabilty from services and run them at arms length. He wants to stifle debate and destroy his critics.
The Future Shape, the shape of tomorrow may be rather ugly.
12 comments:
This is what is really freaky about Barnet Council. An elected dictatorship that makes no attempt to be accountable to us, the Council Tax payers, led by a secretive control freak and ably assisted by a fat toad who eats his way around London again at the tax payers expense.
When do we get to turf these bastards out??
But Hope is a member of the Tory Party according to their HQ!!
The reason why the Friends of Freer behave the way they do can be summed up succinctly: They don’t like it up ‘em!
When Victor Lyon was leader, they sniped, briefed against him and leaked information to the papers in the hope of overthrowing him, but they don’t like the same tactics being used against them.
I thought that Victor was pretty hopeless but the fact that he twice fought off leadership challenges says more about the quality of his opponents than of him. I remember being confronted in the street by one of the “gang of three” who I had accused of undermining the party. He told me in no uncertain terms: “in order to rebuild, you must first destroy”.
When John Major was Prime Minister he was undermined over Maastricht by Ian Duncan Smith who plotted against him. Roll the clock forward to when IDS became leader and, when his position was under threat, he had the nerve to demand loyalty from his MPs. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
You get to turf them out in 2010 - there is a democracy!
The US President appoints his cabinet, none of which are elected.
It's rather a non-point that the people of Barnet don't really care about.
"Julie",
I can't remember the US cabinet unseating an elected president the week after the election.
Such Arrogance
Julie
David Cameron told a C4 Documentary about the downfall of Thatcher that if you win an election you should be entitled to lead your party. Perhaps he said that once he found out Mike Freer was standing for a very winnable seat!
The arrogance lies with you Rog - my point is there are unelected people in the President's cabinet.
Dave, the group voted no confidence after a debate, it's how it works in this country.
And if the people of Barnet feel short changed they will no doubt tell the tories in 2010. By the way, if asked 100 Barnet folk the day after the 2006 election who Salinger was we all know the vast majority wouldn't have the foggiest, as is the case with any leader of a council! Let's not pretend otherwise just we're sad enough to know!! hehe!
Julie,
You are either a barefaced liar or completely ill informed.
As you have brought this up I will state the correct position as is spelled out in the Conservative Group's rules.
The Leader that wins a Council election serves until the after the Summer. At that time the rules provide for an opportunity for any Councillor to stand against the Leader in a secret ballot election.
The rules SPECIFICALLY delay the time for this election from May to the Autumn so that new Councillors can get to know what is going on.
There is no mechanism in the rules for a 'no confidence' motion. Could those who stabbed Salinger in the chest wait just few months to for the rules and democracy to run their course? Were they worried that the more the new Councillors got to see them in practice the more they would be put off?
Would Mike Freer had the cohones to stand directly against Brian Salinger? Or did he prefer for his friends to savage him like wolves and for him to emerge White Knight like with apparently clean hands? Who knows.
That is how "it works in Barnet" and has been that way for years.
What specifically have I been a bare-faced liar about?!
Dan, the group AGM is meant to be in September isn't it? (Like the way you say 'Autumn' to make it seem later in the year - copying Rog T's use of wide language).
Given that August has hardly any meetings, that gives new councillors barely 3 months to get to know what's 'going on' as you put it.....3 months when they're also getting to grips with the more day-to-day role of being a councillor. They would be scarcely more informed 3 months into their term than just after the election. Also, given that most new councillors are activists and involved in the party prior to the election, those 3 months are unlikely to change what they think of the leader.
Nice try, but it isn't convincing, just like Sallinger's contribution to his own no confidence debate by the sound of it!
Obviously, the motion was tabled to get around the mechanism you describe to unseat Sallinger ASAP - if you didn't like Sallinger you would put a motion as soon as possible wouldn't you?! And certainly not before an election which would only highlight the group is divided (which it obviously was).
We can argue about the technicalities etc. but at the end of the day the group didn't want him as leader and voted no confidence - can't get more democratic than a good old vote can you?!
You are a barefaced liar as you suggested what happened to Brian Salinger was just part of the game of politics. It wasn't. It went against established rules and practice followed by everyone, except Ken Livingstone in his GLC days.
...judge a person by the company they keep...
Democracy is more than mob rule. The time to discuss the Leadership was in the Autumn. That was the then Leader expected, and decency dictated that having just won an massive election landslide he should have been granted. This was not imposed from outside, it is what Conservative Councillors had decided, in Barnet.
To trash the rules and impose, as Margaret Thatcher condemned, "the rule of the mob over the rule of law" says all you need to about the people behind the savage mob. It's the difference between decent human behaviour and animal savagery. It's not some 'technicality' as you would put it.
But, I guess you can't expect democracy and the rule of Law from wolves on the scent of blood.
So you're calling me a barefaced liar not because I have told an actual lie but because I have a different opinion to you on whether it was correct for councillors to get rid of their leader?! Thank goodness you're no longer a councillor!!! Talk about knee-jerk accusations! That's a very weak basis on which to call someone a liar and I'm pleased your logic is on public record.
Dan, I don't think it is against the rules to table, debate and vote upon a motion of no confidence! If it was against the rules then democracy would surely be in trouble!
"The time to discuss the leadership was in the Autumn." You say it as if it were fact but it is, of course, just your opinion and others (who were still councillors and could do something about it) felt differently.
Surely if a group of people don't want someone as their leader it is democratic that they have the ability to remove them through a vote! That's not mob rule, it's a group of people voting on something. You talk about decency but the only decent thing to have happened was that Salinger decently accepted the vote. Your arguements are weak, emotional and are not convincing.
It was hardly due to the efforts of Salinger that the Conservatives increased their majority on the council - hardly anyone in Barnet knows him and he wasn't leader very long prior to the election. Come off it sunshine!
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